Easy Reindeer Footprint Ornaments

December 22, 2015

footprint salt dough ornament

Merry Christmas Week, Everyone! About a month ago when Eric and I first put up our tree, he said that he wished we had more ornaments that have meaning behind them (most of our ornaments are hand-me-downs and some are gifts that we’ve been given). I told him that we should make it a point to pick up an ornament from every country we visit and then I started thinking of other ways to have ornaments with more meaning. I realized that this is Olivia’s first Christmas and I wanted to do something special to remember it by. I remember seeing reindeer footprint ornaments on Pinterest before I had Olivia, so I decided to make salt dough ornaments of her teeny little hands and feet. If your children are too old to do handprint/footprints then you can use the same recipe and just use cookies cutters and different colored paint to make and decorate ornaments.

Salt dough is super easy to make, all you need is flour, salt, and water.

  • 1 cup of flour (plain ol’ regular flour)
  • 1/2 cup of salt (plain ol’ regular salt, not sea salt or anything fancy)
  • 1/2 cup of water

Preheat your oven to 250* and combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix until doughy. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Once the dough is rolled out, take your little one’s hands and feet and press them firmly into the dough. If you go through the dough (like the footprint on the right) then smooth it with the rolling pin and try again. footprints

handprints

Then use a knife to cut around the prints and pull the excess dough away.

cut around dough

Once you’ve got all your paw prints, put them on a baking with parchment paper or a silpat (fancy word for ‘thing that makes stuff not stick’).

salt dough ornaments

Put those puppies in the oven for 3 hours or until hard. Check on them about halfway through and if they start puffing up with air then just take a toothpick and poke the tiniest hole so the heat can escape. Take the ornaments out after 3 hours and let cool. I let mine sit out for a couple days so that there would be no moisture and to fully allow them to harden. Now it’s time to decorate! You’ll need the following:

  • brown pipe-cleaners
  • red fuzzy balls
  • googly eyes
  • light brown paint
  • piece of ribbon
  • hot glue gun

ornament supplies

Cut your pipe cleaners into two sizes (about 3 inches and 2 inches) and twist the smaller size around the longer piece to create the antlers.

pipecleaners

Glue your pipe-cleaner antlers to the back of the footprint (you should be gluing the antlers by the toes of the footprint, NOT the heel). Then glue your piece of ribbon on to hang the ornament.

reindeer ornament

Finally, you can paint the ornament and glue on the eyes and nose! I’ve also been told that these should be varnished so I might go back and Modge Podge them. And don’t forget to put your child’s name and date on the back!

reindeer footprint ornament

olivia ornament

Now you’ll have ornaments that you’ll treasure for years to come. And if you have any other ornament ideas, do share!

*Please keep these ornaments away from pets, as they are dangerous if eaten.

XO,

L

 

*This post and idea was originally seen on Messy Little Monster.

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  • Amanda December 22, 2015 at 11:18 am

    So so so cute!! Having her footprint as an ornament gave me all the smiles and heart eyes xo

  • Gerald DiPego December 22, 2015 at 12:14 pm

    Cool and crafty. Sending this one to my crafty wife. Someday Olivia will be measuring her teen-age feet against these ornaments – what a moment. Jerry